benzo abuse ? (lorazpam) .

CreepyStevie69 said:

Benzo withdrawals are no joke. Went through them last year. Your mind feels like it's eating itself. You get the shakes. Cold sweats. Nausea. Body feels like shit. All you wanna do is sleep and die.

When I was in rehab a few months ago this kid was in there for benzos. The worst of his wd were over but his hands still shook worse than any alchy I've seen.

Oh yeah not to mention once the worst is over it still takes a few weeks to be able to talk in complete sentences. And a few more months to feel "normal". So again be careful.

Benzos will love you all day everyday. But like a crazy girlfriend. If you try to leave her she will surely make you regret you two ever met

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I'm fine with them, haven't tried without....yet, my doc keeps trying to force me to quit but I keep saying no, I actually demanded xans when he tried to give me lexapro. I declined that and told him chance are I could find a new doc but at my age I may not be able to find another job, xans work for me, hand them over. Meaning I def need these little blue pills at work to control my impatience with people , with xans I'm cool as can be but without xans I can get pretty fucking ugly. I know after the first of the year doc's gonna start talking his shit again and I'll have to threaten to fire him again. In the beginning I didn't even like xans because although they would make me calm/relaxed as can be they also knocked my ass out, now its purely medicinal since I'd have to take 3 days dosage just for a mild buzz. Medicinally they still seem to work for me so for all I care he can keep me on these things till the day I die.I quit a 30+ year habit of nicotine but I dunno that I can handle my xans taken away.

CreepyStevie69 said:

Benzos are weird. If you're not familiar with the effects it's easy to take a few and think you're 100% sober. Until the next day when you realize you can't remember everything. I love them because it puts me in such a chilled out relaxed mood. Not a single care in the world and if you don't do too much no one is able to tell you're on it. But it is super easy to fall into the grip of addiction without even realizing it.

Lol at dbkick. I know what you mean. Kpins actually taste kinda good. A little sweet like a sweet tart.

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CreepyStevie69 said:

Benzo withdrawals are no joke. Went through them last year. Your mind feels like it's eating itself. You get the shakes. Cold sweats. Nausea. Body feels like shit. All you wanna do is sleep and die.

When I was in rehab a few months ago this kid was in there for benzos. The worst of his wd were over but his hands still shook worse than any alchy I've seen.

Oh yeah not to mention once the worst is over it still takes a few weeks to be able to talk in complete sentences. And a few more months to feel "normal". So again be careful.

Benzos will love you all day everyday. But like a crazy girlfriend. If you try to leave her she will surely make you regret you two ever met

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PLEASE listen to the posts from CreepyStevie69 and please be VERY careful with benzo use. I'm a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor and without a doubt benzo dependency/withdrawal is one of the worst things a person can go through related to drug use/addiction. I'm a bit over month two of a pretty severe benzo withdrawal right now (I know, I should have known better) and it is hell. I took from 10 mg to 20 mg., only as prescribed, of Valium almost daily for about 5 years because of a head-on dance with a tow truck- many surgeries, procedures, PTSD, anxiety, severe muscle spasms, etc, etc. I came off opiates for pain mgmt. and that sucked, came off A-typical opiates (Ultram) also for pain and that sucked worse but nothing, not even Meth, Crack, etc. can compare with a benzo withdrawal. I speak from a point of professional and personal experience here. Seizure risk is no joke, feeling like you're going crazy . . . imagine a really bad acid trip that goes on for weeks/months. It can do permanent damage to your memory systems and can take a big toll on your mood, relationships with others, etc.

One problem with going off benzos is that the symptoms of withdrawal are very similar to the symptoms for which it was likely to be prescribed in the first place; insomnia, anxiety, irritability, muscle tension, etc. You may even take/be prescribed MORE benzos as a result making withdrawals much worse not even knowing your symptoms are related to the benzo use itself. It could be a vicious cycle. Also, not all benzos are equal in terms of effects and withdrawals. Fast acting benzos like Xanax seem to have more addictive potential as they act more quickly on certain neuro/biochemical systems. They also tend to produce more intense and shorter withdrawal periods. Longer half-life benzos like Valium tend to have a longer period of withdrawal and can be every bit as devastating to one's life.

I'll get off the soap box now. It's just REALLY dangerous to dance with benzos and no one is immune. Me? I'll take a withdrawal from almost anything over a benzo withdrawal. It is pure hell. I can just now drive a car and type a complete sentence and it's been a bit over two months or so w/o benzos. I may also have permanent impairement to memory systems after this hellish ride, whew! I digress.

Almost anything a benzo is designed to treat can probably be successfully treated with our favorite medicine. Find the right strain(s) for your needs. Find the best way that works for you to deliver those cannabinoids and enjoy relief without the worry of the dangerous and debilitating effects of benzo use/withdrawal.

Back on the soapbox for a minute, heh heh. I forgot to add there is some interplay between the Cannabinoid receptors and the benzo receptors. The GABA agonist effect of benzo use (makes GABA work more efficiently in your system), I believe, also has an antagonist effect on the Cannabioid (CB1 or CB2?) receptors. Basically, for me, the benzo use seemed to be messing with the CB1/CB2 receptors ability to use/process the Cannabinoids. I seemed to need MUCH more herb to get the desired effects when I was using benzos. Having been off them for a few months now it seems that it only take a little bit to get more intense effects from the herbs and I never took a break with the MJ through all this mess. There's an article describing the effect of GABA/CB receptors and benzo interplay in one of my research journals somewhere. I'll try and find it online for ya somewhere and post a link if I can.

Found it. Amazing what a great site this is!: https://www.rollitup.org/medical-marijuana-news/393436-decoding-understanding-neural-matrix-endocannabinoid.html

Best of luck with whatever course of relief you choose!

dirtysouth said:

Back on the soapbox for a minute, heh heh. I forgot to add there is some interplay between the Cannabinoid receptors and the benzo receptors. The GABA agonist effect of benzo use (makes GABA work more efficiently in your system), I believe, also has an antagonist effect on the Cannabioid (CB1 or CB2?) receptors. Basically, for me, the benzo use seemed to be messing with the CB1/CB2 receptors ability to use/process the Cannabinoids. I seemed to need MUCH more herb to get the desired effects when I was using benzos. Having been off them for a few months now it seems that it only take a little bit to get more intense effects from the herbs and I never took a break with the MJ through all this mess. There's an article describing the effect of GABA/CB receptors and benzo interplay in one of my research journals somewhere. I'll try and find it online for ya somewhere and post a link if I can.

Found it. Amazing what a great site this is!: https://www.rollitup.org/medical-marijuana-news/393436-decoding-understanding-neural-matrix-endocannabinoid.html

Best of luck with whatever course of relief you choose!

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WOW !! only 6 posts , and you said quite a mouthful .
thank you very much sir , its all noted . =)
also , welcome to RIU .

dirtysouth said:

Back on the soapbox for a minute, heh heh. I forgot to add there is some interplay between the Cannabinoid receptors and the benzo receptors. The GABA agonist effect of benzo use (makes GABA work more efficiently in your system), I believe, also has an antagonist effect on the Cannabioid (CB1 or CB2?) receptors. Basically, for me, the benzo use seemed to be messing with the CB1/CB2 receptors ability to use/process the Cannabinoids. I seemed to need MUCH more herb to get the desired effects when I was using benzos. Having been off them for a few months now it seems that it only take a little bit to get more intense effects from the herbs and I never took a break with the MJ through all this mess. There's an article describing the effect of GABA/CB receptors and benzo interplay in one of my research journals somewhere. I'll try and find it online for ya somewhere and post a link if I can.

Found it. Amazing what a great site this is!: https://www.rollitup.org/medical-marijuana-news/393436-decoding-understanding-neural-matrix-endocannabinoid.html

Best of luck with whatever course of relief you choose!

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It all makes sense now. Cuz when me and my lady friend were really into Valium and kpins (probably 70-120mg a day at least of the Valium and another 6-15mg of kpins) we would smoke and be high for 45 minutes. We had to keep a constant j going to stay buzzed.

The loss of memory is kinda sad too. I have about 2-2.5 months of 2009 just gone. I have no idea for the most part what happened in those two months. Kinda scary too. But I never thought about it til now that maybe the reason my memory sucks so bad now might be because of my benzo abuse back then. Damn.

Hey y'all,

Ya, totally sucks about the memory loss and definitely very, very scary. My wife calls me Rip Van; just waking up. Most things I'm coming across doesn't really discuss how long the impairments are either unfortunately. My doc (new doc) is a certified addictionologist and talks about it being permanent. Not really what you want to hear when you're withdrawing, heh heh. Appreciated the honesty though. He also talked about, meth use, even casual, causing permanent damage to some neuro-systems leading to a tendency to not feel joy, happiness, pleasure, etc. the same way that an unimpaired brain would. Big fun that one. Not to mention that during benzo use and well into withdrawal the mind tends to go to "dark places" and many decisions are made based on that faulty frame of mind. In my case I really didn't know what was tripping me out for the longest. Ya tend to not really feel a "jones" for benzos in the same way you do with opiates, etc. so physical dependency can really sneak up on ya. I came into some money from a car accident settlement and "something" was telling me to get my ass outta Vegas ASAP before the next tragedy struck. All in a desperate mood I went and bought a small farm in the south. I don't know why if you ask me today. Why move to a place with such draconian laws on MJ when you can move almost anywhere you want. I remember saying to everyone at one time there's no way in hell you'd catch me down south, not even for a road trip and yet here I am, broke as a joke, heh heh. All part of the fun I guess. It is an ass kicker for sure.

Mad props to you CreepySteevie69 and to anyone else who has or is trying to beat this monster. Ya know once we're done we can never go back to benzos. Not for the 12-step kind of reasons of maintaining complete abstinence for success but because a previous dependency to benzos kind of "primes" the neural pathways for a serious backslide with our brain chemistry should we use them again. Nasty, nasty stuff for sure.

Still, I think there's hope in neuroplasticity, that is, the brains ability to form new neural networks based on external/internal stimuli. There's things we can do. I sure hope so. I'd hate to think of 8 years of higher education going out the window, heh heh. As for me, I think studying math/sciences and learning to effectively teach them would help to strengthen things up for me. I think it's time to take a break from the hardcore therapist gig for a while, heh. Just don't ask me to remember anything for a test.

Fazz, thanks for the welcome. I haven't posted too much on the growing topic as I'm a new student to the art and there seems to be many more informative opinions on here. I don't yet have much to add on the subject. Yet . . . .

Lorazepam is the generic for Ativan. Not quite as strong as Xanax, but just as dangerous. Try not to become addicted; racerboy71 is right: withdrawals from benzos CAN be fatal (seizures and stroke). Please be very careful.